A group of Hong Kong artists went to Mumbai, India in February 2014 to participate in a public art festival titled [en]counters 2014: is there love in this air?. The festival provides a platform where Indian and international artists establish a dialogue with a highly complex and layered city.
As a way to widen the geographical scope of the project, ArtOxygen will bring 3 Indian artists works to Hong Kong and will invite Singapore artist Jason Lee (who participated in phase I) to launch the 2nd phase of this year's [en]counters with the participating artists from Hong Kong.

(以上藝術家也會在5月3日前各自在香港的不同地區，進行不同的遊撃創作，而相關的記錄將會在文獻展中呈現/ Some of the artists will also have guerilla art-making activities in different areas in Hong Kong. The documentation of their works will be shown in the exhibition in the end. )

A group of Hong Kong artists went to Mumbai, India in February 2014 to participate in a public art festival titled [en]counters 2014: is there love in this air?. Organized by ArtOxygen, the festival provides a platform where Indian and international artists establish a dialogue within a highly complex and layered city. As a way to widen the geographical scope of the project, ArtOxygen will bring 3 Indian artists’ works to Hong Kong and invite Singapore artist Jason LEE (who participated in phase I) to launch the 2nd phase of this year's [en]counters with the participating artists from Hong Kong.

“Chaotic beauty” is how Jason LEE, who is from the tidiest state in the world, described Mumbai on his blog. For Hong Kong artists, the different paces in this city’s everyday life are the most exciting and inspiring. For example, the relaxing and spontaneous living style in Mumbai forms a huge contrast with the precise drifting skills and speedy efficiency of those three-wheeler taxi drivers on street. In many ways, Hong Kong and Mumbai are quite similar: both being very densely populated, dealing with many aspects of pollutions in the city (like air pollution), having been British colonies, experiencing a booming commercial contemporary art market etc. Through art exchanges, the participating artists and audience from both places will be able to learn from each other about how to creatively tackle similar problems they face in their cities.

Amongst all the works shown in Mumbai was a screening at Juhu Beach and Carter Road of a video work by Joel LAM. It began its narrative with the blue sky and then move on to explore different dimensions under this same sky. LEUNG Mee Ping chose to respond to a touching story of a pair of mother and son from India. Transforming this story into music, LEUNG invited pairs of audience to operate two music boxes together by the seaside in order to let the music merge with the sound from the sea. LO Chi Kit collected many stories from Indians who immigrated to Hong Kong, and then took their old time stories in India back to Mumbai’s public space in the form of transparent graffiti with glue and dust. Sunday LAI constructed a semi-private space, in the size similar to a Hong Kong cage home, on Mumbai’s Carter Road. She invited passersby to enter and watch a video about her feelings toward Mumbai. SO Wai Lam helped soundpocket to take a series of sound clips recorded in Hong Kong to share with Mumbai’s public. Together with a Mumbai young artists, Abinov ???, TSE Chun Sing went into Mumbai’s koli villages to draw with children, to install their drawings in the village and try to fly kites together. Another Hong Kong artist, LAW Yuk Mui, who did not physically visit Mumbai, invited an Indian friend in Tokyo to sing a Bollywood love song to send back to Mumbai.

As an echo to the numerous white motel bed-sheets lying on the seaside for drying, the art intervention by Singapore artist Jason LEE involved an 8-meter long white cloth. Passers-by were invited to have dialogues with the artist and to graffiti their feelings toward Mumbai on this big canvas. Artworks by Indian artists, who will also participate in the second phrase in Hong Kong, included Pradeep L. MISHRA’s installation of long Indian incent sticks at Juhu Beach, ReenaSaini KALLAT’s salt letters of a mother to her son who passed away at the beach also and Hema UPADHYAY’s philosophical writings on rice that required viewers to examine carefully.

The above artists will develop and extend their Mumbai art projects in Hong Kong at the second phrase. Some of them will have guerilla actions in public spaces at Mongkok, Tau Kwa Wan and beaches in Hong Kong, while some artists will have installations and happenings together at the outdoor area in and around Cattle Depot Artist Village in the afternoons of May 3 & 4, 2014. There will also be screening and artist sharing session at soundpocket on May 3, 2014 at 6pm, and curators’ talk at C&G Artpartment on May 10, 2014 at 6pm. In the end, a documentation exhibition will take place at C&G Artpartment. Besides the formal documentation of the artist projects, a group of Hong Kong artists will also contribute interesting objects and materials they collected in Mumbai for display as the “dessert” of the exhibit.